North American surfactant manufacturing looks set to receive a boost from natural gas derived ethylene based feedstocks, especially ethylene oxide.
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Category Archives: Industry News
Highlights of the ACS CM&E lunch on green chemicals, March 2011
A new article describes potentially revolutionary use of biomass in surfactants
We are about 25% of the way up between last year’s trough and the next peak for the chemical industry. This and other excellent analysis from the chief economist of the ACC
Base Oil markets are set to undergo big changes as new capacity comes onstream in Group 3 and Group 2 oils.
There’s a lot happening in cleantech now – impacting energy and chemicals. First, on Thursday December 9th, Con Edison, the CM&E Group of the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers are sponsoring the 5th annual Energy and Resources Conference. I am privileged to hold a board seat on the ACS CM&E group and was happy to play a small role in helping plan the conference.
Private equity funds continue to invest in chemical distributors due to economies of scale and other quantitative drivers.
The next revolution in surfactants may come from bio-renewable feedstocks. A number of emerging companies are developing bio-refinery technology to help replace petrochemical and oleochemical raw materials.
Partnering with an operationally skilled private equity investor to divest a non-core business in two steps can help maximize value and preserve the business in a stronger condition for employees and other stakeholders.
Recent commodity price movements raise significant issues for surfactant producer and consumer economics.
“The Anatomy of a Deal” NYC Panel October 7th, 2010 Yesterday’s ACS, CM&E luncheon panel discussion “The Anatomy of a Deal”, hosted by Chris Cerimele of Houlihan Lokey and sponsored by Neil A. Burns LLC, GenNx360 Capital Partners and Houlihan Lokey, was a resounding success. We sold out the venue last week and had to establish a waiting list, such was the appeal of a panel consisting of the following hard hitting practitioners in the world of chemicals M&A: Chris Cerimele, Leader of Chemicals Practice, Houlihan Lokey Jeff Kolke, Senior Vice President, GE Capital Drew Shea, Managing Partner, GenNx360 Capital Partners Bill Rowland, Partner, Jones Day Ray Newhouse, CFO, Lanxess Corp. Chris and I conceived of the idea, early in the year, of having a panel of experienced specialists examine a chemicals M&A deal each from their own unique perspective. And so, rather like in a medical thriller, our specialists discussed and debated the patient’s condition, what to do, what not to do, what’s important, what’s a distraction and what, in general, is the prognosis. The I-Banker, Lender, PE Investor, Lawyer and Corporate CFO kept the record crowd of around 80 lunch guests spellbound for 90 minutes as they debated,…
Notes from Montreux 2010 Spent the last couple of weeks in Europe, including the Montreux Detergent Conference – always an interesting and very pleasant time by the Lake Geneva shoreline. The “warm-up” to Montreux included a bunch of meetings in the UK, then in continental Europe and also, in the interest of full disclosure, the best weekend of skiing ever, on the Klein Matterhorn Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland. The key themes from Montreux were probably “sustainability” and “China” with each paper and many of the sidebar discussions featuring either or both. Attendance was good and the quality of attendees was, from my perspective, excellent. I had the pleasure of spending some time with colleagues and friends from Desmet Ballestra at their very busy exhibit booth. We engaged many existing and prospective customers in discussions regarding sulfonation, ethoxylation, oleochemicals and of course other areas including soap and food processing. Overall, the opportunity to see many old friends and make new contacts in the now familiar environs of Montreux, was too good to miss. The industry seems in robust health despite the many challenges associated with feedstock volatility and continuing active government regulation. The mood was, on balance, optimistic as new technologies (such…
Observations from China Specialty Chemicals Trip: Just got back from a trip to China where the focus was on two of my favorite markets, surfactants and silicones. Many meetings, a couple of conferences, an exhibition and topped off with a speaking engagement, before hopping on the (direct) Shanghai to Newark flight home. The silicones aspect, undertaken primarily on behalf of Sivance LLC, on whose board I sit, was an eye-opener. Suffice to say, that the organizers, CNCIC, a government body deserve a lot of credit for the quality of the event. I will be talking more about silicones in the coming weeks. Surfactants in China is a hot market. And by hot, I mean, booming and somewhat overbuilt. In common with many markets there, we see tremendous overcapacity and a very large number of local producers, often sub-scale, competing with larger multinationals who are setting up shop primarily to take part in the growing consumer market for surfactant containing products like laundry detergent, shampoo and cosmetics. I spoke at the 10th Asia Surfactant Conference in Shanghai and moderated one of the afternoon sessions. One of my speakers from Huntsman painted a picture of a highly oversupplied market with 14 ethylene…